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Hubbard and the Occult

I stand before you having been
accused
in print by L. Ron Hubbard's followers of having an avid interest
in black magic. I would like to put firmly on record that whatever
interest I have is related entirely to achieving a better understanding
of the creator of Dianetics and Scientology. Hubbard's followers
have the right to be made aware that he had not only an avid interest,
but that he was also a practitioner of black magic. Today I shall
discuss these matters in depth, but I shall not repeat all of the
proofs which already exist in my book A Piece of Blue Sky(1).

Scientology is a twisting together of many threads. Ron Hubbard's
first system, Dianetics, which emerged in 1950, owes much to early
Freudian ideas (2).
For example, Hubbard's "Reactive Mind" obviously derives from
Freud's
"Unconscious". The notion that this mind thinks in identities comes
from Korzybski's
General Semantics. Initially, before deciding that
he was the sole source of Dianetics and Scientology (3), Hubbard acknowledged
his debt to these thinkers (4).
Dianetics bears marked similarities to work reported by American
psychiatrists Grinker and Speigel (5) and English psychiatrist
William Sargant(6).
The first edition of Hubbard's 1950 text Dianetics: The Modern Science
of Mental Health(7)
carried an advertisement for a book published a year earlier (8). Psychiatrist Nandor
Fodor had been writing about his belief in the residual effects
of the birth trauma for some years, following in the footsteps of
Otto Rank. In lectures given in 1950, Hubbard also referred to works
on hypnosis which had obviously influenced his techniques (9). The very name "Dianetics"
probably owes something to the, at the time, highly popular subject
of Cybernetics. (10).

By 1952, Hubbard had lost the rights to Dianetics, having bailed
out just before the bankruptcy of the original Hubbard Research
Foundation. He had also managed to avoid the charges brought against
that Foundation by the New Jersey Medical Association for teaching
medicine without a license (11).
In a matter of days in the early spring of 1952, Hubbard moved from
his purported "science of mental health" into the territory of reincarnation
and spirit possession. He called his new subject Scientology, claiming
that the name derived for "scio" and "logos" and meant "knowing
how to know". However, Hubbard was notorious for his sly humour
and "scio" might also refer to the Greek word for a "shade" or "ghost".
Scientology itself had already been used at the turn of the century
to mean "pseudo-science" and in something close to Hubbard's meaning
in 1934 by one of the proponents of Aryan racial theory (12). Other possible links
between Hubbard's thought and that of the Nazis will be made clear
later in this paper.

Aleister Crowley

Scientology seems to be a hybrid of science-fiction and magic.
Hubbard's reflection on philosophy seem to derive largely from
Will
Durant's
Story of Philosophy(13) and the works of
Aleister
Crowley. Aleister Crowley is surely the most famous black magician
of the twentieth-century. It is impossible to arrive at an understanding
of Scientology without taking into account its creator's extensive
involvement with magic. The trail has been so well obscured in the
past that even such a scholar as Professor
Gordon Melton has been
deceived into the opinion that Hubbard was not a practitioner of
ritual magic and that Scientology is not related to magical beliefs
and practices. In the book A Piece of Blue Sky, I explored these
connections in detail. The revelations surrounding Hubbard's private
papers in the
1984 Armstrong case in California makes any denial
of the connections fatuous. The significances of these connections
is of course open to discussion.

The chapter in A Piece of Blue Sky that describes Hubbard's involvement
with the ideas of magic is called
His Magical Career. I hope I shall
be excused for relying upon it. I shall also here describe further
research, and comment particularly upon Hubbard's use of magical
symbols, and the inescapable view that many of the beliefs and practices
of Scientology are a reformation of ritual magic (14).

In 1984, a former close colleague of Hubbard's told me that thirty
years before when asked how he had managed to write Dianetics: The
Modern Science Of Mental Health in just three weeks, Hubbard
had replied that it had been automatic writing. He said that the
book had been dictated by "the Empress". At the time, I had no
idea who or what "the Empress" might be. Later, I noticed that
in an article printed immediately prior to the book Dianetics,
Hubbard had openly admitted to his use of "automatic writing,
speaking and clairvoyance"
(15). However, it
took several years to understand this tantalising reference to the
Empress.

In the 1930's, Hubbard became friendly with fellow adventure
writer Arthur J. Burks. Burks described an encounter with "the Redhead"
in his book Monitors. The text makes it clear that "the Redhead"
is none other than Ron Hubbard. Burk said that when the Redhead
had been flying gliders he would be saved from trouble by a "smiling
woman" who would appear on the aircraft's wing (16). Burk put forward
the view that this was the Redhead's "monitor" or guardian angel.

In 1945, Hubbard became involved with Crowley's acolyte,
Jack
Parsons. Parsons wrote to Crowley that Hubbard had "described his
angel as a beautiful winged women with red hair, whom he calls the
Empress, and who had guided him through his life and saved him many
times." In the Crowleyite system, adherents seek contact with their
"Holy Guardian Angel".

John Whiteside Parsons, usually known as Jack, first met Hubbard
at a party in August 1945. When his terminal leave from the US Navy
began, on Dec 6th, 1945, Hubbard went straight to Parsons' house
in Pasadena, and took up residence in a trailer in the yard. Parsons
was a young chemist who had helped set up
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
and was one of the innovators of solid fuel for rockets. Parsons
was besotted with Crowley's
Sex Magick, and had recently become
head of the Agape Lodge of the
Church of Thelema in Los Angeles.
The Agape Lodge was an aspect of the
Ordo Templi Orientis, the small
international group headed by Aleister Crowley.

Parsons' girlfriend soon transferred her affection to Hubbard.
With her, Hubbard and Parsons formed a business partnership, as
a consequence of which Parsons lost most of his money to Hubbard.
However, before Hubbard ran away with the loot, he and Parsons participated
in magical rituals which have received great attention among contemporary
practitioners.

Parsons and Hubbard together performed their own version of the
secret eighth degree ritual
(17) of the Ordo Templi Orientis in January 1946. The
ritual is called "concerning the secret marriage of gods with men"
or "the magical masturbation" and is usually a homosexual ritual.
The purpose of this ritual was to attract a women willing to participate
in the next stage of Hubbard and Parsons' Sex Magick.

Hubbard and Parsons were attempting the most daring magical feat
imaginable. They were trying to incarnate the Scarlet Woman described
in the Book of Revelation as "Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlot
and Abominations of the Earth...drunken with the blood of saints,
and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." (18). During the rituals,
Parsons described
Babalon as "mother of anarchy and abominations".
The women who they believed had answered their call, Majorie Cameron,
joined in with their sexual rituals in March 1946.

Parsons used a recording machine to keep a record of his ceremonies.
He also kept Crowley informed by letter. The correspondence still
exists. Crowley wrote to his deputy in New York "I get fairly frantic
when I contemplate the idiocy of these louts".

Crowley was being disingenuous. His own novel The Moonchild describes
a ritual with a similar purpose. Further, the secret IXth degree
ritual of the Ordo Templi Orientis (19) contains "Of the Homunculus"
in which the adept seeks to create a human embodiment of one of
the energies of nature — a god or goddess. The ritual says "to it
thou are Sole God and Lord, and it must serve thee."

In fact, Hubbard and Parsons were committing sacrilege in Crowley's
terms. Crowley respelled "Babylon" as he respelled "magic". His
magick was entirely dedicated to Babalon, the Scarlet Woman. Crowley
believed himself the servant and slave of Babalon, the
antichrist,
styling himself "The Beast, 666". For anyone to try to incarnate
and control the goddess must have been an impossible blasphemy to
him. Crowley, after all, called Babalon "Our Lady".

Hubbard and Parsons attempt did not end with the conception of
a human child. However, just as Crowley said that "Gods are but
names for the forces of Nature themselves" (21), so it might be speculated
that Hubbard embodied Babalon not in human form, but through his
organization.

Parsons sued Hubbard in Florida in July 1946, managing to regain
a little of his money. The record of their rituals was later transcribed
and has since been published as The Babalon Working (22). Parsons made a return
to Magick, writing The Book of The Antichrist in 1949 (23). Parsons pronounced
himself the Antichrist. In a scientology text, Hubbard spoke favourably
of Parsons, making no mention of their magical liaison (24). A Piece of Blue Sky
covers Hubbard's involvement with Parsons in much greater detail
than I have given here.

Hubbard's interest in the occult was kindled long before he met
Parsons. It dates back at least to his membership of the
Ancient
and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis or AMORC, in 1940. Hubbard
had completed the first two neophyte degrees before his
membership lapsed, and later there were private complaints that
he had incorporated some of the teaching he had promised to keep
secret into Scientology
(25).

Having stolen Parsons' girl and his money, Hubbard carried on
with magical practices of his own devising. Scientology attempted
to reclaim documents which recorded these practices in its case
against former Hubbard archivist
Gerald Armstrong. Some $280,000
was paid to publishers Ralston Pilot to prevent publication of Omar
Garrison's authorised biography of Hubbard. However, Garrison retained
copies of thousands of Hubbard's documents and showed me one which
had been referred to in the Armstrong trial. The Blood Ritual is
an invokation of the Egyptian goddess Hathor, performed by Hubbard
during the late 1940's. As the name suggests, the ritual involved
the use of blood. Hubbard mingled his own blood with that of his
then wife (the girlfriend he had stolen from Parsons and with whom
Hubbard contracted a bigamous marriage.)

The Fool

In a 1952 Scientology lecture, Hubbard referred to "Aleister
Crowley, my very good friend" (26). In fact, the two
black magicians never met, and Crowley expressed a very low
opinion of the man who he saw had tricked his disciple Jack
Parsons. Even so, Hubbard had a very positive regard for
Crowley, calling his work "fascinating" (27)
and recommending one of his books to Scientologists. Having
referred to Crowley as "The Beast 666", Hubbard said that he had
"picked a level of religious worship which is very interesting."
(28). He also made
it clear that he had

In his 1952 lectures, Hubbard also referred to the
Tarot cards,
saying that they were not simply a system of divination but a "philosophical
machine". He gave particular mention to the Fool card, saying "The
Fool of course is the wisest of all. The Fool who goes down the
road with the alligators at his heels, and the dogs yapping at him,
blindfolded on his way, he knows all there is and does nothing about
it...nothing could touch him" (30).

The only Tarot pack which has a alligator on the Fool Card is
Crowley's (31). When
I interviewed Gerald Armstrong, Hubbard's archivist, in 1984, he
told me of a Hubbard scale dating from the 1940's. At the base of
the scale was the word "animals". It then ascended through "labourers,
farmers, financiers, fanatics" and "the Fool" to "God". Hubbard
seemed to have seen himself as the Fool and was perhaps trying to
create a trampoline of fanatics through whom he could achieve divinity.
Indeed, if Scientology could live up to its claims, then Hubbard
would be a "godmaker".

Of course, the Tarot pack also contains the Empress card and
knowing this it is finally possible to understand what Hubbard believed
his Guardian Angel to be.

Crowley examined the Tarot in The Book of Thoth(32). Of the Empress card
he said "She combines the highest spiritual with the lowest material
qualities" (33). Crowley
identifies the Empress as the "Great Mother" and indeed on her robe
are bees (34), the
traditional symbol of
Cybele. Crowley is not alone in the belief
that different cultures give different names to the same deities.
The worship of Cybele goes back to at least 3,000 B.C. She entered
Greek culture as Artemis and to the Romans was
Diana, the huntress.
Crowley also identified the Empress with the Hindu goddess
Shakti(35), and the Egyptian
goddess Isis and
Hathor. Crowley directly identified Isis with Diana
(36). More usually,
Crowley called the Empress by the name Babalon (37).

Contemporary New Age groups see the Great Mother in the aspect
of Gaia the Earth Mother. This is far from Crowley's view. Diana,
the patroness of
witchcraft(38)
was seen by Hubbard rather through the eyes of Crowley than as a
benevolent, loving mother. Hubbard made no reference for example
to Robert Graves'
White Goddess, but only to Crowley and peripherally
to Frazer's
Golden Bough and
Gibbon's
Decline and Fall, both or
which give reference to the cult of Diana. To Crowley, the Great
Mother, Babalon, is, of course, also the antichrist.

While Crowley's path was submission to the Empress, Hubbard seems
to have tried to dominate the same force, bringing it into being
as a servile homunculus. Hubbard's eldest son, although a questionable
witness, was insistent that his father taught him magic and privately
referred to the goddess as Hathor. The Blood Ritual confirms this
assertion if nothing else.

Publicly, Hubbard was taken with the Roman name of the goddess,
Diana, giving it to one of his daughters and also to one of his
Scientology Sea Organization boats. Curiously this boat had been
renamed The Enchanter and before Scientology he had owned another
called The Magician. Hubbard had also used Jack Parsons' money to
buy a yacht called Diane (39).
"Dianetics" may also be a reference to Diana. Shortly before its
inception, another former US Navy Officer and practitioner of the
VIIIth degree of the Ordo Templi Orientis had formed a group called
Dianism (40).

Janus

When The Blood Ritual was mentioned during the
Armstrong trial
in 1984, Scientology's lawyer asserted that it was an invokation
of an Egyptian goddess of love (41). Hathor is indeed
popularly seen as a winged and spotted cow which feeds humanity.
However, there is an important lesson about Scientology in the practice
of magicians. The teachings of magic are considered by many practitioners
to be powerful and potentially dangerous and therefore have to be
kept secret. One of the easiest ways to conceal the true meaning
of a teaching is to reverse it. By magicians Hathor is also seen
as an aspect of Sekmet, the avenging lioness. One authority on ritual
magic has revealed the identity of Hathor as "the destroyer of
man"
(42). The important
lesson is that Scientology has both a public and a hidden agenda.
Publicly it is a Church, privately as the record of convictions
shows, it is an Intelligence agency. Many public Hubbard works speak
of helping people. In his largely secret
Fair Game teachings, however,
Hubbard is outspoken in his attack upon either critics of himself
or his works. For example, in What is Greatness? Hubbard says "The
hardest task one can have is to continue to love one's fellows despite
all reasons he should not. And the true sign of sanity and greatness
is so to continue." In one statement of the Fair Game Law, however,
Hubbard said that opponents "May be tricked, sued or lied or destroyed"
(43). Of practitioners
unlicensed by him Hubbard said "Harass these persons in any possible
way" (44). Nor did
he exclude the possibility of murder against those who opposed him
(45). The harassment
of critics, may explain the dearth of academic research into Scientology.
Hubbard's use of contradiction to captivate and redirect his followers
is worthy of a separate study (46), but it has its roots
in his study of magic. Perhaps he related his "Dianetics" also to
Janus, the two-faced god whose name is sometimes called "Dianus".

While Hubbard was supposedly researching his Dianetics in the
late 1940s, he was in fact engaging in magical rituals, and trying
out hypnosis both on himself and others. During the 1984 Armstrong
trial, extracts from
Hubbard's voluminous self-hypnotic affirmations
were read into the record. The statements, hundreds of pages of
them, are written in red ink and Hubbard frequently drew pictures
of the male genitalia alongside the text (47). Amongst his suggestions
to himself we find "Men are my slaves", "Elemental Spirits are
my slaves" and "You can be merciless whenever your will is crossed
and you have every right to be merciless" (48).

Black magic is distinguished from white in the desire of the
practitioner to bring harm. "Maleficium" is the traditional word
for such magic. The "Suppressive Person declare" and the "Fair Game
Law" speak reams in terms of Hubbard's intent.

Scientology is a neo-gnostic system, which is to say that it
teaches the attainment of insight through a series of stages. These
stages are called by Scientologists "the Bridge to Total Freedom".
The Bridge currently consists of some 27 levels. These levels might
be compared to the initiations of magical systems. While the stages
appear dissimilar to those of Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis, it
is worth noting that both systems consist of stages, that both have
secret levels and that both are numbered with Roman numerals. Hubbard
also shared with Crowley a numbering system which begins at 0 rather
than 1.

The Scientology Bridge has as its end the creation of an "Operating Thetan". Hubbard used the word "thetan" to identify the self, the
spirit which is the person. He claimed that the word derived from
an earlier Greek usage of the letter
theta for "spirit" (49). I have been
unable to find such a usage, but can comment that the theta
symbol is central to the Crowley system where it is found as an
aspect of the sign used for Babalon. To Crowley, the theta sign
represented the essential principles of his system — thelema or the will. (50)

By "Operating Thetan", Hubbard meant and individual or "thetan"
able to "operate" freely from the physical body, able to cause effects
at a distance by will alone. In Hubbard's words "a thetan exterior
who can have but doesn't have to have a body in order to control
or operate thought, life, matter, energy, space and time" (51). Hubbard used the
term "intention" rather than "will" (52), but the goal of Scientology
is clearly the same as that of the Crowley system. The Scientologist
wishes to be able to control events and the minds of others by intention.
This seems to be exactly what Crowley called "thelema". In a 1952
lecture, Hubbard recommended a book which he called "The Master
Therion" (53). This
was in fact one of Crowley's "magical" names. I have been advised
by an officer of one of the Ordo Templi Orientis groups that the
reference is most likely to Crowley's magnum opus Magick in Theory
and Practice. In that work, Crowley gave this definition "Magick
is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in confirmity
with Will" (54). So
the aim of both Crowley and Hubbard seems to have been the same.

As a recovering Scientologist, I must raise an ethical objection
to the desire to control the minds of others without their consent.
This is the purpose of many Scientology procedures (55), and can be seen either
as deliberate "mind control" or as the black magician's contempt
of others. Scientology is a curious hybrid of magic and psychology.
After all, Hubbard boasted "we can brainwash faster than the Russians — 20 seconds to total amnesia" (56).

At the centre of Crowley's teaching is the notion that we can
control our own destiny: "Postulate: Any required Change may be
effected by the application of the proper kind and degree of
Force in the proper manner through the proper medium of the
proper object"
(57), further "Every
intentional act is a Magical Act" (58), "Every failure proves
that one or more requirements of the postulate have not been fulfilled"
(59). Hubbard taught
that everything is down to the intention of the individual. He called
such intentions "postulates". The victim of any negative event is
said to have "pulled it in". Hubbard taught a contempt for "victims"
and regarded sympathy as a low emotional condition (60). As Crowley put it
"Man is ignorant of the nature of his own being and powers...he
may thus subjugate the whole Universe of which he is conscious to
his individual Will" (61).

Hubbard was to employ or parallel so many of Crowley's ideas
and approaches that it is impossible, especially with Hubbard's
references to Crowley, to avoid comparison. For example, in his
Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health, Hubbard laid much
emphasis on the recollection of birth. Crowley had earlier insisted
that the magican must recall his birth (62). Crowley spoke of
"A equals" (63), where
Hubbard, again in Dianetics spoke of "A equals A equals A". Both
men were noisy in their contempt for pyschotherapists (64). Both Hubbard and
Crowley spoke of "past lives" rather than "reincarnation" (65). Indeed, the notion
of past lives and their recollection is essential to both systems,
as Crowley wrote "There is no more important task than the exploration
of one's previous incarnations" (66). Scientology and Dianetics
also rely upon the supposed recollection of previous incarnations.
Crowley called this the "magical memory" (67).

Hubbard gave as the fundamental axiom of his system "Life is
basically a static. A Life static has no mass, no motion, no wavelength,
no location in space or in time." (68). Crowley was more
succinct, called the self "nothing" (69). Hubbard was to say
that even an "Operating Thetan" could not "operate" alone, and Crowley
said "Even in Magick we cannot get on without the help of others"
(70).

The first essential teaching of Scientology is that "reality
is basically agreement" (71)
or "reality is the agreed-upon apparency of existence" (72), which Crowley expressed
as "The universe is a projection of ourselves; an image as unreal
as that of our faces in the mirror...not to be altered save as we
alter ourselves" (73).
The controlling power of thought, or will, is evident in both systems,
Crowley has it "we can never affect anything outside ourselves save
only as it is also within us."(74).

Both men believed that truth is unobtainable in the material
world. Crowley expressed it thus "There is no such thing as truth
in the perceptible universe
(75). Hubbard said "The ultimate truth...has no mass,
meaning, mobility, no wavelength, no location in space, no space."
(76)

Hubbard's concept of the "thetan exterior" — operating apart
from the body is found in Crowley's "interior body of the Magician"
which can "pass through matter" (77). Both systems seek
to get the spirit "out of the body" (78).

Crowley said "Evil is only an appearance...like good" (79), where Hubbard said
that "goodness and badness...are considerations, and no other basis
than opinion" (80).

Each spoke of a personal "universe" (81). Hubbard also followed
in Crowley's footsteps with the insistence that the meaning of words
should be clarified or "cleared" (82).

Crowley announced that Christ was "concocted" (83) which tallies with
Hubbard's assertion that Christ was a hypnotic "implant" (84). Here the major difference
between Crowley and Hubbard becomes apparent: Crowley was publicly
outspoken about his views, Hubbard was careful to keep negative
material secret. Scientology claims to be eclectic and non-denominational.
Only in secret teachings is Hubbard's contempt for Christianity
apparent (85).

The long series of lectures in which Hubbard called Crowley his
"very good friend" and recommended his writings, centres on a technique
called "creative processing" by Hubbard. It is unsurprising that
this technique is common to magicians. Nowadays it is more usually
known as "visualisation."

Scientology surely has the distinction of containing the largest
collection of teachings produced by one man. There are more than
a hundred books and over 2,500 recorded lectures. But there are
also thousands of registered trademarks, including many symbols.

Aleister
Crowley's
cross

Scientology's
cross

Many of these symbols have magical significance. It seems
highly unlikely given his study of the occult that Hubbard was
unaware of the earlier use of these symbols. The Scientology
cross which Hubbard claimed to have seen in an old Spanish
church in Arizona
(86) is markedly
similar to the Rosicrucian cross
(87)
and also to Aleister Crowley's OTO cross. Hubbard had been a
member of the Rosicrucians. He had also commented on Crowley's
Tarot which carries the OTO cross on the back of every card.
Hubbard cannot have been ignorant of these uses.

The Scientology cross could also be seen as a crossed out
cross, with potentially Satanic implications. It seems strange
that Hubbard who called Scientology a "better" activity than
Christianity
(88) called Christ
an invention (89)
and said that the "Creator of Heaven" would be found "with
beetles under the rocks"
(90), should have adopted the exclusive Christian word
"church", the garb of Christian ministers and the use of the
cross as a symbol. But Scientology is based upon deception and
contradictions.

The
Rosicrucians and the
Freemasons
share a ritual called the "grave of fire"
(91). A senior Rosicrucian who had also studied
Scientology told me that the initiate lies on a carpet within a
pattern of lapping flames. He claimed that Scientology's
Religious Technology Center — or RTC — symbol was very similar.

The RTC symbol contains the Dianetics triangle, which is a
common magickal symbol, representing the door of the Cabala, the
letter Daleth. Hubbard indeed assigned it to the Greek equivalent of Daleth,
Delta. The triangle on its base is also the symbol of
Set, the Egyptian
god called by some "the destroyer of man", the male equivalent of
Babalon. Indeed Crowley equates Set with
Satan(93). The triangle is universally
recognised as a sign of malign power. Alexandra David-Neel commented
upon its use as such among the
Tibetans. Her best-selling books
of the 1930's contain many other possible comparisons with Hubbard's
work.

The
"S and double triangle" is a major symbol found throughout
Scientology. The "S" supposedly represents "Scientology" and the
two triangles Affinity-Reality-Communication and Knowledge-Responsibility-Control.
There is another possible interpretation. The "S" seen on its own
can easily be seen as a snake. To Crowley, indeed, the "S" represented
the tempting serpent, Satan. Perhaps Hubbard's "thetan" is pronounced
to match with a lisped "satan"? He was after all wry in his humour.
The two triangles can be assembled differently to form the
Star
of David, called the Seal of Solomon by magicians (94). This symbol allegedly
represents "tetragrammaton" the holy name of God which must never
be spoken. Perhaps breaking it apart is similar to hanging the Christian
cross upside down.

Next we see the
Sea Organization symbol. The five pointed star,
or pentacle is the most commonly known symbol of magical power.
It is held between two thirteen-leaved laurels. Armstrong told me
in 1984 that judging by the papers in Hubbard's archive the creator
of Scientology was more interested in numerology than any other
aspect of magic.

Among the more seemingly fanciful claims of Hubbard's oldest
son, L. Ron, junior, was that his father was the successor to the
magicians who created
Nazism. Nazism was certainly an authoritarian
group, a prototypical destructive cult. Recent revelations about
leading Scientologist Thomas Marcellus' long-running direction of
the
Institute for Historical Review
can only add to speculation
(95). Dusty Sklar
has said that had she known about Hubbard she would have used him
in the last chapter of The Nazis and the Occult rather than
Sun Myung
Moon(96). L. Ron,
junior, was sure that the teachings of the Germanen Orden and the
Thule Society
had passed directly to his father by courier. In this light, the
white circle on a red square of Scientology's International
Management Organization (97) can be readily compared
to the Nazi flag. The four lightning flashes or "sig runes" are
also common to Nazism. No explanation is given for these sig runes
by Scientology. They also appear on the RTC symbol. At the time
that both of these symbols were introduced, Hubbard also created
the International Finance Police, headed by the International Finance
Dictator. An unusual choice of words.

Hitler too had been aware of the power of occult symbols and
rituals. Speaking of Freemasons, he said "All the supposed abominations,
the skeletons and death's head, the coffins and the mysteries, are
mere bogeys for children. But there is one dangerous element and
that is the element I have copied from them. They form a sort of
priestly nobility. They have developed and esoteric doctrine more
merely formulated, but imparted through the symbols and mysteries
in degrees of initiation. The hierarchical organization and the
initiation through symbolic rites, that is to say, without bothering
the brain by working on the imagination through magic and the symbols
of a cult, all this has a dangerous element, and the element I have
taken over. Don't you see that our party must be of this character...?
An Order, the hierarchical Order of a secular priesthood." (98)

Having shown many comparisons between Crowley's work and Hubbard's,
and having shown the common intent of both systems, I shall now
move on to the secret rituals of Scientology. The attempt to obtain
magical powers is certainly not unique to Hubbard and Crowley. Every
culture seems to have its own approach.

One common element to most cultures is the belief in disembodied
spirits. Disembodied spirits can be found in the teachings of all
the major religions (99).
Crowley shared with many the belief that such spirits can be used
in the practice of magic (100).
Most of the secret teachings of Scientology concern such disembodied
spirits.

Toward the end of his life, Hubbard wrote some chirpy pop songs
which were recorded under his direction (101). One of these songs,
The Evil Purpose, begins "in olden days the populace was much afraid
of demons and paid an awful sky high price to buy some priestly
begones". The song goes on to explain that there are no demons,
"just the easily erased evil purpose". In fact, the Operating Thetan
levels are concerned almost entirely with "body thetans" or indwelling
spirits or demons.

Hubbard first floated the idea to his adherents in spring 1952,
during his first Scientology lectures (102). He spoke of "theta"
as the life-force and went on to describe "theta beings" and "theta
bodies". Mention was made again that June in the book What to Audit,
which is still in print, minus a chapter — as Scientology:
A History
of Man. Here Hubbard said that we are all inhabited by seven foreign
spirits, the leader of which he called the "crew chief". The idea
did not find favour, so it was abandoned for fourteen years.

In December 1966, in North Africa, Hubbard undertook "research"
into an incident which he claimed had occurred 75 million years ago.
In a tape recorded lecture given in September, 1967, Hubbard announced
his revelation to Scientologists. On the same tape he boasted about
his wife Mary Sue Hubbard's use of "Professional Intelligence Agents"
to steal files. His wife, the controller of all Scientology organizations
subsequently went to prison. more Scientology continues to claim that
its creator knew nothing of the events that put his wife into prison,
but also continues to sell the tape. Armstrong, Hubbard's former
archivist has said that the Hubbard archive contains letters written
while he was creating Operating Thetan level three. In his lecture,
Hubbard claimed to have broken his back while researching. Armstrong
told me in 1984 that Hubbard had in fact got very drunk and fallen
down in the gutter. A doctor had been called out to him to deal
with a sprain. Hubbard also detailed his drug use in this correspondence.
In February, 1967, Hubbard flew to Los Palmas and the woman who
attended him there has told me that he was taking enormous quantities
of drugs and was in a very debilitated state.

The result of Hubbard's "research" was a mixture of science-fiction
and old-fashioned magic. According to Hubbard, 75 million years
ago, Xenu, the overlord of 76 planets, rounded up most of the people
of his empire, some 178 billion per planet — and brought them to
Earth. Here they were exploded in volcanoes using hydrogen bombs
and the spirits or thetans collected on "electronic ribbons". Disorientated
from the massacre, the disembodied thetans were subjected to some
36 days of hypnotic "implanting" and clustered together. From seven
indwelling spirits per person Hubbard's estimate had gone into the
thousands. The "implants" supposedly contained the blueprint for
future civilizations, including the Christian teaching, 75 million
years before Christ. Operating Thetan level three had to be kept
secret, according to Hubbard, because the unprepared will die within
two days of discovering its contents. The story has in fact been
published in many newspapers without noticeable loss of life. Hubbard
was so taken with his science fiction, that he finally wrote a screenplay
called Revolt in the Stars about the "OT3" incident, ignoring his
own warnings.

It is often the case with Hubbard's work that he has simply taken
other ideas and dressed them up in new expressions. Careful study
shows that Dianetics included such words as "operator", "reverie",
and "regression" common to hypnotic practitioners at the time. On
leaving Scientology, most people cannot see that the "body thetans"
of Operating Thetan levels three to seven are in fact the demons
of Christian belief. The "OT levels" are factually the most expensive
form of exorcism known to man. Unfortunately, such beliefs and practices
can have a severe effect upon practitioners, who take Hubbard's
warning to heart and come to believe themselves multiple personalities.
I have been called to help in several times in such instances.

Kali

Indeed, the whole process of "auditing" can be seen as an update
of magical ritual. Scientology is a mixture of occult ritual and
1950s style psychotherapy. The adherents travel through increasingly
expensive initiations with the hope of attaining supernatural powers.
There are badges, symbols and titles for almost every stage of the
way.

Other links with ritual magic have emerged. A peculiar event
occurred aboard Hubbard's flagship, the Apollo, in 1973. Those aboard
ship responsible for overseeing the management of Scientology organizations
were involved in a ceremony called the
Kali ceremony after the
Hindu goddess of destruction. The whole was staged very seriously,
and the managers were led into a dimly lit hold of the ship and
ordered to destroy models of their organizations. [RH:
See affidavit of Monica Pignotti] A few years before,
a high-ranking Sea Organization Officer claims to have been ordered
to Los Angeles where he was meant to mount an armed attack on a
magician's sabat. He did not mount the attack but claims that the
meeting happened exactly where Hubbard had told him it would.

In 1976, Hubbard ordered a secret research project into the teachings
of gnostic groups. He had already carried out a project to determine
which of his ship's crew members were "soldiers of light" and which
"soldiers of darkness". The latter group were apparently promoted.
Jeff Jacobsen has provided insight into a possible connection between
Hubbard's OT levels and gnostic teachings (103). Jacobsen quotes
from the third century Christian gnostic
Valentinus: "For many spirits
dwell in it {the body} and do not permit it to be pure; each of
them brings to fruition its own works, and they treat it abusively
by means of unseemly desires". Jacobsen goes on to cite the gnostic
Basildes, man "preserves the appearance of a wooden horse, according
to the poetic myth, embracing as he does in one body a host of such
different spirits." Jacobsen points out that multiple possession
seems to have been considered normal by these gnostics. Possession
equates to madness in orthodox Christianity, and example of multiple
possession are rare [the Gadarene swine for example]. Jacobsen draws
other interesting parallels between gnosticism and Scientology.

Another former Sea Organization member affidavited a meeting
in the 1970's with an old man whose description fitted Hubbard's.
She claimed to have been taken to the top floor of a Scientology
building by high-ranking officials and left there with this man,
who performed the sexual act with her, but very slowly (104). Indeed, in the
way advocated by Crowley and called karezzo. No outside witness
has corroborated this statement.

I have already said that the public and private faces of Scientology
are very different. The vast majority of Hubbard's followers are
good people who genuinely believe that the techniques of Scientology
can help the world. Most are ignorant of the hidden Fair Game teachings.
Hubbard presented himself as a messiah, as
Maitreya the last Buddha,
but in fact he was privately a highly disturbed and frequently ill
man. There are a number of reports of his drug abuse. He advocated
the use of amphetamines (105).
He admitted to barbiturate addiction (106) and was also at
times a heavy drinker. His treatment of those around him was often
deplorable. Although holding himself out as an authority on child-rearing,
his relationship with his children was genuinely dreadful. He disowned
his first son, barely saw his first daughter, and
Quentin, the oldest
son of his third marriage, committed suicide. Quentin had reached
the highest level of Scientology twice. He was a Class XII auditor
and a "cleared theta clear", but he was also a homosexual. Hubbard
was publicly homophobic — saying that all homosexuals are "covertly
hostile" or backstabbers. I have received alarming reports of his
sexual behaviour. I must emphasise that these reports are not corroborated,
so can only stand as allegations. One Sea Organization officer
claims to have witnessed a sexual encounter between Hubbard and
a young boy in North Africa. Another claims that Hubbard admitted
to a sexual relationship with one of his own children. It is impossible
to substantiate such reports. But such behaviour would be in keeping
with an extreme devotee of Aleister Crowley who said that in the
training of a magician "Acts which are essentially dishonourable
must be done." (107).

In conclusion, I believe that Hubbard was a classic
psychopath.
Some trauma in infancy separated him from the world and made him
untrusting of other people. This developed into a paranoia, a need
to control others. He created a dissociated world, inhabited by
the Empress. Bear in mind that he actually saw the Empress in full
colour, and that she spoke to him (108). From his comments
about automatic writing and speaking, it could be averred that Hubbard
was in fact "channeling" the Empress. Hubbard separated off a compartment
of himself calling it the Empress and gave in to its urging. He
lived a life of dreadful contradiction. He claimed expertise in
all things, but factually was a failure at most. Some will see him
as having a psychiatric complaint, others will believe that he invoked
the very devil, or Babalon, and was possessed. Hubbard's own belief
lives on with all of its contradictions in his teaching. Ultimately,
as Fritz Haack put it, Scientology is twentieth-century magic.

(10)^
Jeff Jacobsen has written two interesting papers relevant
to any discussion of the origins of Scientology. Dianetics:
From Out of the Blue, the Skeptic, UK, March/April 1992,
which discusses the origins of Dianetics and The Hubbard
is Bare, 1992, a more general discussion including comments
about Crowley and gnosticism. I have worked for some time
on a set of papers which discuss Hubbard's plagiarism, as
yet these are unavailable.

(15)^
Hubbard, "Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science" originally
printed in Astounding Science Fiction, May 1950. Republished
by AOSH DK Publications Department, 1972, quotation from
p. 56, see also p. 59.

(22)^
There is contention between the various OTO groups about
the Book of Babalon. Its existence is sometimes denied,
and the OTO New York have claimed that only a fragment exists
(published in Parsons, Freedom is a Two-Edged Sword, Falcon,
Las Vegas, 1989) I have read three versions of the manuscript,
one is the Yorke transcript, another is un-named. The third
was published in vol.1, issue 3 of Starfire, London, 1989.

(45)^
e.g. HCO Policy Letter, Ethics, Suppressive Acts,
Suppression
of Scientologists, the Fair Game Law, 1 March 1965. The
offending part of the text was read into an English court
judgement (Hubbard v Vosper, November, 1971, Court of Appeal).
In USA v Jame Kember and Morris Budlong, in 1980, Scientology
lawyers admitted that despite public representations Fair
Game has never truly been "abrogated" (sentencing memorandum,
District Court, Washington, D.C. criminal no. 78.401 (2)
& (3), p. 16, footnote). The Policy Letter which did eventually
cancel it, off 22 July 1980, was itself withdrawn on 8 September
1983. Unknown to MOST of its adherents, Fair game is still
a scripture, and according to Hubbard's Standard Tech principle
binding upon Scientologists. Hubbard issued a murder order
in 1968 under the name "R2-45" (The Auditor issue 37). Thankfully,
this order was not complied with.

(46)^
See for example the technique called False Data Stripping
and Hubbard's comments on controlling people through contradictory
instructions.

(50)^
The Babalon sign with a theta at the centre of a 7-pointed
star is found in many of Crowley's works, e.g. The Book
of Thoth. The winged sign of the OTO and the use of the
theta sign can be found in various place, e.g. Equinox — Sex and Religion, Thelema Publishing Co., Nashville, 1981.

(52)^
e.g., PAB 91, The Anatomy of Failure, 3 July 1956. See
also definition of "Tone 40" in the Dianetics and
Scientology Technical Dictionary, "giving a command and
just knowing that it will be executed despite any
contrary appearances".

(85)^
e.g. Hubbard, HCO Policy Letter Routine Three — Heaven,
11 May 1963 and the original preface to the Phoenix Lectures,
Hubbard South Africa Association of Scientologists, Johannesburg,
1954 "God just happens to be the trick of this universe",
p. 5. In HCO Bulletin Technically Speaking, of 8 July 1959,
Hubbard said "The whole Christian movement is based on the
victim...Christianity succeeded by making people into victims.
We can succeed by making victims into people."

(86)^"What is Scientology?" Church of Scientology of California,
first edition, 1978, p. 301

(108)^
Hubbard ordered that new dust sleeves should be put onto
his books after he'd released OT3, in 1967. These book covers
are supposedly meant to depict images from the 36 days of
implanting and will supposedly compel people to buy the
books. The cover for Hubbard's Scientology 8-80,
Publications Department, AOSH Denmark, 1973, shows a
winged couple. The woman could well be the Empress. A
similar design was used on the dust sleeve of Hubbard's
Scientology 8-8008 in the 1990 Bridge, L.A.,
edition.